While there is no federal legislation available on this topic, and state laws can vary from locality to locality, there are some steps you can try to take when creating your work schedule to ensure that you are complying with best practice. Some laws also cover availability of additional work hours or call-in pay. The purpose of these laws is to ensure that workers are being assigned a fair amount of work, and to ensure that their work-life balance is being prioritized. These types of laws are becoming more and more common at the state and local level in the USA.

It is also important to ensure that your work schedules comply with predictive scheduling laws or fair scheduling laws. Different colors also make individual areas stand out from each other. For example, empty rows or columns can loosen up the layout.

A visually appealing design is also an advantage.

If in doubt, it is a good idea to add an explanatory note.

The work schedule should therefore be limited to the essentials for the sake of clarity (also make sure that the text is not too small) and be as an uncomplicated and self-explanatory as possible.

It should not just make sense to the manager creating it, but also to the employees.

It must contain all essential information, including employees’ first and last names, working hours, and the planning period for which the work schedule applies.

As a planning tool for employers and guidance for workers, each work schedule should meet certain requirements:

Employee scheduling spreadsheet excel